res ipsa loquitur

Why Inflation Is Lower Than You Think

Speaking of Barry, he blogged a month or so ago about the significant change to the CPI made during the Clinton Administration which lowered inflation measures. The government likes to keep the CPI low since it keeps their inflation-indexed payouts lower--they are not interested in actually measuring inflation's impact on the economy at all, they are interested in preventing political unrest in an election year and keeping payouts low. They've succeeded at the second goal but can't fool the average American on the first. A decade of declining real wages coupled with accelerating core inflation cannot be 'indexed' away as if it were simple a number trick because the pain is real and growing. No matter how the politicians spin it.